The Background and Summary are provided to introduce a foundation and selection of concepts that are further described below in the Detailed Description. The Background and Summary are not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor are they intended to be used as an aid in limiting the scope of the claimed subject matter.
The following U.S. Patents and Patent Applications are incorporated herein by reference:
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/226,597 discloses an improved hydraulic model using real-time or near-real-time data from an Automated or Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), which includes consumer consumption meters, to improve model accuracy, particularly by obtaining more accurate, higher-resolution water demand values for service nodes in the model. Improving the accuracy of water demand calculation for the service nodes in the model stems from an improved technique that more accurately determines which consumption points in the water distribution system should be associated with each service node and from the use of real-time or near-real-time consumption data. The computer apparatus uses the water demand values to improve the accuracy and resolution of its water flow and pressure estimates. In turn, the improved flow and pressure estimation provides for more accurate control, e.g., pumping or valve control, flushing control or scheduling, leak detection, step testing, etc.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/402,743 discloses a method, apparatus, and system for leak detection in a distribution network having consumption meters. The distribution network is divided into zones having an upstream location and a downstream location. An upstream pressure sensor detects the upstream pressure at the upstream location and the downstream pressure sensor detects the detected downstream pressure at the downstream location. A downstream pressure lookup table is used to determine an expected pressure at each downstream location based on a range of hypothetical upstream pressures at the corresponding upstream location and consumption data from the consumption meters. The expected pressure and the detected downstream pressure at each downstream location are compared to determine if the calculated discrepancy exceeds a discrepancy threshold. If a discrepancy exceeds a discrepancy threshold, a leak location lookup table containing a set of potential leak locations based on a range of hypothetical discrepancies is used to determine a set of probable leak locations.